Mulder is a former police officer, and was a Commander in the Tasmania Police. He was director of the State Security Unit, the Tasmanian Police counter-terrorism taskforce.[3] He has served as an alderman on the Clarence City Council since 2005.[4] Although running as an independent candidate, Mulder openly retains links to the Liberal Party,[5] for whom he ran as a candidate for Franklin in the 2010 state election.[6] Before the 2010 election, the Labor Party lodged a complaint that Mulder may have breached the Electoral Act when he appeared in a television advertisement wearing a police uniform, giving the impression that he was still a serving police officer. He was cleared of breaching the Electoral Act by the Tasmanian Electoral Commission.[7]